Leamington church, which has raised thousands of pounds for families in town, now has to raise cash for itself.

St Mary's Church, in St Mary's Road, Sydenham, needs to raise &#xA3;180,000 for its roof, which is starting to crumble.

The Rev Morris Rodham, vicar at the 160-year-old church, a Grade II listed building, said a fundraising drive will be launched, beginning this weekend.

He said: "St Mary's will be hosting a major art exhibition today, tomorrow and Sunday to launch its fundraising drive for a new roof.

"The church is not stopping its community and outreach focus, but needs to raise &#xA3;180,000 by March next year to repair serious damage to the roof and timbers. Parts of the ceiling have started to fall down."

Local and national artists have contributed work. St Mary's will get 25 per cent of every sale.

Refreshments will be available throughout the exhibition, with live jazz music on Saturday, from 6pm to 8pm.

The exhibition runs today, until 8pm, tomorrow from 10am to 8pm and on Sunday from 1pm to 5pm.

Mr Rodham and the church congregation spearheaded a huge campaign to build the &#xA3;1 million pound community centre on the site of the old Sydenham First School.

The SYDNI centre, as it is called, attracted huge support and is now successfully up and running. It has training rooms, a computer suite, a day care centre for the elderly, a youth suite, a cafe and a main hall, which can be hired.

Up to 25 organisations contributed to its funding and the centre opened just over a year ago.

The church also runs the pathway drug recovery programme which helps drug addicts from Leamington recover from their problems.